Founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, Author of Citizen Wealth, Global Grassroots and The Battle for the 9th Ward.

Money Guard

New Orleans A colleague forwarded me an interesting “citizen wealth” strategy for lower income families to protect small resources: having a “money guard.” The P2P Foundation (peer to peer) included a piece on their website with the following story:

Money guarding: “If you get a fairly decent chunk of money, you give it to a money guard, a neighbor or relative or friend that you trust and say, “Hold this, and don’t let me touch it.” Sometimes the same money guard asks you to hold their money, and so when someone comes to borrow money, you say, “It’s not my money.” It works.”
What a good idea, huh? This strategy came from interviews in South Africa among lower income families, but it might work everywhere.